Director of Safety & QA

SUMMARY: The Director of Safety & Quality provides strategic leadership and oversight for all safety, health, and construction quality management activities across Premise. This position is responsible for developing and sustaining a proactive safety culture, ensuring regulatory compliance, and establishing consistent quality standards that support successful execution of utility-scale solar construction projects. The Director partners with executive leadership, Operations, Project Management, field leadership, and technical personnel to proactively identify and mitigate safety and quality risks, reduce incidents and construction deficiencies, and drive continuous improvement. This position provides direct leadership to the Training & Safety Specialist and the QA/QC team, including a designated QA/QC Lead. The Director is accountable for overall safety and quality performance while leveraging qualified technical personnel to manage specialized inspections, testing, and project-level quality execution. The Director promotes a culture where safety, quality, accountability, and operational excellence are shared responsibilities throughout the organization.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Lead the development and implementation of a company-wide safety culture where safety is a core value and shared responsibility. Partner with senior leaders, project managers, superintendents, foremen, and field employees to drive proactive safety behaviors, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Lead company safety programs designed to reduce injuries, incidents, property damage, and operational losses while improving productivity and reducing workers' compensation and rework costs.
• Lead the audit of all safety program elements, schedule and perform (when necessary) safety audits and inspections; identify issues and develop corrective action plans. Use root cause analysis to identify trends and develop action plans to address findings.
• Develop and execute the company's annual safety strategy, goals, metrics, and improvement initiatives aligned with business objectives.
• Develop and monitor leading safety indicators including near-miss reporting, hazard identification, training completion, safety observations, and corrective action closure rates. Present safety performance, trends, leading indicators, and improvement recommendations to executive leadership on a regular basis.
• Partner with Business Development and Operations to support customer qualification processes, preconstruction planning, customer audits, safety presentations, and ongoing customer relationships.
• Collaborate with Operations, Project Management, and Field Leadership during project planning and execution to identify risks and implement effective controls before work begins.
• Partner with the Training Director and subject matter experts to develop, update, and continuously improve safety-related training programs. Serve as the primary subject matter expert for safety content while delivering classroom, field, and customer safety training as assigned.
• Provide oversight and guidance for high-risk activities including fall protection, electrical work, aerial lifts, confined spaces, lockout/tagout, and other critical-risk operations.
• Lead investigations into significant incidents, injuries, near misses, and property damage events. Ensure root causes are identified, corrective actions implemented, and organizational learning is communicated.
• Maintain thorough knowledge of federal and state OSHA regulations and web sites; maintain up-to-date knowledge of safety codes and regulations; distribute and/or post new or revised safety standards that affect the company. Review, track, and respond to OSHA inquiries.
• Review and update safety policies and procedures to ensure compliance with customer and local, state, and federal OSHA and safety standards and regulations.
• Ensure all regulatory records, customer compliance documentation, and required reporting are accurate, complete, and submitted on time.
• Partner with HR to manage the company’s substance abuse policy including drug testing program and reasonable suspicion.
• Coach and develop project managers, superintendents, foremen, and field leaders in effective safety leadership practices.
• Ensure business is compliant with state-specific Workers’ Compensation regulations for all states of operation.
• Administer and manage the company’s injury management and return to work program including medical visits, recordability of injuries and workers’ compensation claims, document submission and follow-up.
• Directly supervise the Training & Safety Specialist, including goal setting, coaching, performance management, and professional development.
• Partner with fleet manager to ensure compliance with DOT regulations and fleet safety initiatives.
• Develop and manage the annual departmental budget including PPE, compliance programs, software, and safety initiatives.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL LEADERSHIP

• Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of Premise's company-wide Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) program to support consistent execution of utility-scale solar construction projects.
• Provide leadership, coaching, performance management, and professional development for QA/QC personnel, including the designated QA/QC Lead.
• Partner with Operations, Project Management, Engineering, and field leadership to establish quality expectations, responsibilities, and accountability throughout project planning, construction, testing, and turnover.
• Oversee the development and implementation of project-specific quality plans, inspection and test plans, quality checklists, documentation procedures, and corrective action processes.
• Ensure QA/QC personnel have the technical qualifications, training, resources, and authority necessary to perform assigned inspections and verification activities.
• Monitor project quality performance, including inspection results, deficiencies, rework, nonconformance reports, corrective action closure, and customer quality concerns.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to identify recurring quality issues, determine root causes, implement preventive measures, and reduce the cost of rework.
• Collaborate with Project Management and field leadership to ensure quality requirements are incorporated into project planning, construction sequencing, and subcontractor coordination.
• Oversee the timely resolution of significant quality deficiencies and ensure appropriate technical review and approval before nonconforming work is accepted or released.
• Support customer quality audits, project turnover requirements, quality-related documentation, and continuous improvement of customer satisfaction.
• Develop and present safety and quality performance metrics, trends, risks, and improvement recommendations to executive leadership.
• Establish consistent processes for communicating lessons learned and best practices across projects.
• Other duties as assigned.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in Occupational Safety, Construction Management, Engineering, Industrial Hygiene, or related field; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum of 7 years of progressive construction safety experience, including responsibility for safety program development, incident investigation, training, and regulatory compliance.
• Demonstrated experience with construction quality processes, inspections, corrective actions, or quality management systems
• Minimum of 3 years of leadership experience, including supervision of employees and/or leading safety initiatives across multiple project sites and states.
• Demonstrated success building and sustaining a proactive and positive safety culture in a construction environment that drives employee engagement, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Experience conducting safety audits, inspections, job hazard analyses, and risk assessments.
• Experience developing safety training content and delivering engaging classroom, field, and hands-on safety instruction for construction employees and leadership.
• Knowledge of workers' compensation, injury management, return-to-work programs, and OSHA recordkeeping requirements.
• Strong working knowledge of OSHA Construction Standards (29 CFR 1926).
• Experience managing contractor and subcontractor safety compliance.
• Experience significantly reducing EMR in a construction or manufacturing environment.
• Ability to establish credibility and build effective working relationships with field employees, foremen, project managers, senior leadership, customers, and subcontractors.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and experience utilizing safety management, project management, and reporting software.
• OSHA 500 Construction Outreach Trainer certification
• Current First Aid/CPR certification (or ability to obtain upon hire)

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PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Certified Safety Professional.
• Experience improving EMR, TRIR and workers' compensation performance
• OSHA-510

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to, stand, sit, walk, lift, squat, push, pull, climb stairs, ladders and possibly towers, hear, see, reach, grasp and use hands and fingers to operate a computer key board, telephone, power tools, and equipment. The employee must have the ability to occasionally lift more than 50 lbs.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT:

While performing the essential functions of this job, the employee will work both inside in a normal indoor office environment and outside at remote job sites. The employee may be exposed to extreme weather conditions, including heat and cold and wet or humid. The employee may work in high places, and/or work around moving mechanical parts, vehicles and other equipment. The employee may also work in areas where the noise volume is loud and constant. The employee must have the ability to work overtime and to travel to remote job sites which may include overnight stays.

Premise Inc. is an equal opportunity, affirmative action, veteran-friendly employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or physical requirements. The duties and responsibilities listed in this job description are not all-inclusive and other duties may be assigned. Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.